10 Tips to Kick-Start Your Website or Blog

Want to get online but no idea where to start?

You’re not alone.

During a recent conversation with a friend, she asked advice on how to set up her new online business. I rattled off some words like “hosting”, “Wordpress” and “Opt-in” and she looked at me like I’d spoken Swahili!

She had no idea what I was talking about.

So it got me thinking… there must be lots of other people in the same position.

They’d love to start an online business or blog but haven’t got a clue where to begin.

I thought about my own journey in the online world and all the steps I took to get my business out there.

And I came up with 10 helpful tips to get you started.

Tip #1 - Brainstorm Your Business Name

Coming up with a business name is often the hardest thing to do!

Begin by writing down anything that comes to mind. Be creative and allow yourself to think outside-the-box.

Once you’ve got a list of potential’s, you can play around with names until you settle on one that suits.

Tip #3 – Decide on a Website Platform

Once you’re ready to get your website sorted, you need to think about which platform to go with.

There’s so many to choose from but the most commonly used ones are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. Each has pro’s and con’s so it’ll be up to you to decide which suits you best.

I won’t go into the in’s and out’s of each platform here but if you want to know more, check out this article.

I’m personally a big fan of WordPress and have always used it for my websites and blogs. It has amazing functionality and there’s so many widgets/ plugins available, allowing you to customize any part of your website.

It is a self-hosted platform (whereas the others I mentioned above aren’t). This is not an issue though as there are some excellent (and reasonably priced) hosting companies out there.

Tip #4 – Organize Hosting (WordPress only)

To get your website live, it needs to be hosted on a server. You can’t host it on your computer or laptop as the files are too large.

You can buy your own server but we’re talking megabucks to do this and it’s definitely not necessary for 1 small website.

There are many hosting companies available, all with different packages and benefits.

I did some extensive research into this a while back and decided to host my website with Siteground as their reviews were fantastic. They have a top-notch customer support service – this is very important when you have website issues!

Plus, they have 5 server exchanges in different parts of the world (3 in Europe, 1 in Asia and 1 in the USA). Without getting all technical, what this means is that your website speed will be quick.

Tip #6 – Choose a Website Theme

A website theme is essentially the look and feel of your website.

Back in the day when websites first came to be, they had to be built specifically by a web developer. This involved lots of mind-boggling coding and hours of work.

Now though, we have access hundreds of user-friendly website themes which can be used without needing a computer degree!